July 20, 2019: The Heat is On: The View From My Cool Room
Bless air conditioning on a hot, steamy day. The only room that has AC in our mountain aerie is my office. Saturday morning, as has been my ritual for almost three decades, I listen to the best R&B in the world, DJ’ed by Felix Hernandez on the jazz station, WBGO, accessible through the internet. Dancing as I clean my house, or just dancing as if no one is watching and letting it rip, soul satisfying for me to work through inexpressible emotions, feeling the music down to my cells.
There has been a continuous aerial dancing parade of monarchs outside my office window. How fortunate I am to have such beauty surrounding me with red bee balm (monarda), orange lilies, and flowering milkweed growing directly outside the window. 
Further out and to the right is a circle of more milkweed, flowering purple monarda and yet to flower anemones, cardinal flowers and globe thistles.
In joyous wonder I watched a monarch lay her eggs on multiple milkweeds. An eastern tiger swallowtail nectared at the flowering milkweeds. Hummingbirds challenged one another then feasted on the red monarda.
Little flashes of brilliant purple blue flittered hither and yon, too fast a fluttering for my camera, a summer azure, eliciting a gasp of delight. Gratefully, I have seen many this summer. A brilliant dash of yellow flew from window stage left across to the still flowering dogwood tree, a golden finch. Bees buzzing, birds feasting on my raspberries, a most bountiful crop this year.
I made raspberry Rote Grutze, a tapioca pudding, very delicious. I also made raspberry vinegar, and raspberry/blueberry syrup as well as eating them with lettuces from the garden. Heavenly.
The center of a zinnia draws my attention, mother nature’s mandala.